Double Trouble, with a hint of chutney
by Snowflakes-on-my-eyelashes
Summary: The Slitheen are back with a new plan to destroy Earth, but are they acting alone? Set about half a year after 'Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith, with Sarah Jane, Clyde, Rani and Luke briefly returning from Oxford. Mainly adventure with hints of romance.
1. Chapter 1: The Library

"So how do you think you did in the exam today?" Rani asked Clyde, as they walked home from school together.

Clyde feigned a pained voice: "please don't talk about it."

"But you did at least do some revision for this one, right?"

Clyde looked at Rani incredulously. "Are you insane? There was some good stuff on TV."

Rani had learned long ago that 'TV' was Clyde's cover for having done some Art, but she hadn't let on. All, the same, either was ridiculous the night before an A level exam. Rani shook her head despairingly but before she could reply, a familiar green motorcar drove towards them.

"Hey, Sarah Jane!" Clyde shouted.

The car stopped, and an equally familiar face smiled up at them, her green eyes crinkling.

"Hello, you two! I'm afraid I can't stop, I'm going to investigate the source of some suspicious energy traces."

"Can we come?" Rani asked at once. She was an aspiring journalist herself, and loved coming with Sarah Jane on her investigations.

"No, you two have exams! You should be revising," she reprimanded.

"Oh, they're only A levels," Clyde dismissed, but seeing this did not seem to impress Sarah Jane, he added hastily, "and we don't have any until Monday now anyway."

Sarah Jane looked helplessly at the two of them for a moment before relenting – much to their delight and surprise, as she was a stubborn woman. "Oh, all right," she said. "But don't think this will become a regular thing during your exams – tomorrow, Clyde Langer, you will be revising even if the world is about to end."

"Yeah yeah."

"So," Rani started, once they were in, "what is it you're investigating exactly?"

"The West Ealing library shut down recently without any warning – just suddenly one day there was a sign up saying it had closed – but Mr Smith detected very high energy traces from there ever since."

"A library." Clyde looked disgusted. "We're investigating a library. I'd almost rather do revision."

"That can be arranged," Sarah Jane said, skilfully keeping a straight face. "I'll drop you off here then and you can walk home."

"Hey I said almost!" Clyde protested hastily.

Rani laughed. "Come on, Clyde, library or not, Mr Smith detected high energy traces – that could mean aliens, couldn't it, Sarah Jane?"

"Unfortunately, yes it could."

"Not unfortunately," Clyde said, and no one contradicted him.

A contented silence fell and they drove for several more minutes before arriving at a grey concrete building, whose two floors towered above them disapprovingly. The sign above the door read W ST EA ING L BRA Y. The door itself was locked but Sarah Jane, ever equipped, used her sonic lipstick to open it. Rani, even after all the adventures she had had, couldn't help grinning as she did – she was feeling the familiar thrill that gripped her when investigating with Sarah Jane. Clyde, seeing her expression, rolled his eyes.

The interior of the library was no more inviting than the exterior had been; it was dark, the lights flickering feebly, causing the shadows that the bookcases cast to shiver despondently. Sarah Jane flipped open her watch-scanner and walked purposefully down an aisle, with Clyde and Rani behind her.

Suddenly, they stopped short as the line of bookcases they were walking down came to an end. In front of them, a space had been cleared of shelves and instead, looking completely out of place, a great deal of machinery had been arranged in a semi-circle, all humming and whirring.

"This library looks more interesting than the one near us," observed Clyde ironically.

"Don't touch, Clyde," Sarah Jane warned, as he walked towards it. She returned to her scanner. "We don't know what this machinery is for yet."

"Not for cleaning the books, anyway. Surely this proves that this is aliens, Sarah Jane?"

"Oh how very clever you are, working that out so fast." They span round to see the source of the sarcastic voice, and saw, silhouetted against a doorway, a great hulking figure, with long arms trailing at its sides. Arms with three long fingers. As it stepped into the light, their fears were confirmed.

"Slitheen!" Rani gasped, at the same time that Clyde muttered "not again."

"So," the Slitheen began, continuing his sarcastic tone, "we meet at last, Sarah Jane Smith – and this must be Clyde and Rani. How lovely to meet you."

Sarah Jane narrowed her eyes. "What do you want? How do you know who we are?"

The Slitheen laughed. "How? Slitheen have come to earth many times before, as we both know, Sarah Jane Smith, and when none of them ever came back successful, I decided to find out what had happened to them, and in nearly every case, a Sarah Jane Smith was involved. So I resolved to come to this pathetic planet and destroy it, and then to get revenge on Sarah Jane Smith for murdering my family."

"I didn't want to kill any of them!" Sarah Jane cried passionately. "But they were going to destroy millions of innocent people and I couldn't let them do that. I'm sorry that that was how it ended out, really I am, and if there had been a way of resolving it all peacefully, I would have."

The Slitheen drew himself up to his considerable height. "Why should I believe that? And even if it is true, you still killed them, so I will get my revenge on you. Flam, Hosteck, Boon? Hold them."

At this command, three more Slitheen – two adults and one child – appeared from the same doorway that the first Slitheen had come through and held the three humans, who struggled in vain.

"But before I carry out my revenge on you, Sarah Jane Smith," the alien continued, "I'm going to tell you exactly how I'm going to destroy this little planet of yours." He paused, as if to give what was to come the suspense he thought it deserved. "Liquid oxygen is a sought-after spaceship fuel, so imagine how much money someone would get if they extracted all the oxygen from this planet – from the atmosphere and the sea!"

Sarah Jane shook her head. "You can't! You'll kill the whole of the human race! Have your revenge on me if you must but you've got to let the rest of the earth live!"

Laughing, the Slitheen said, "but where is the fun in that? Oh Sarah Jane, there is no way to stop me destroying your world, and the best part is that it is all your fault."

"I can still stop you – I have done before!" she declared desperately.

"I'm afraid not – you see, I've organised a little excursion for you using this." The alien held up a small device and advanced towards Sarah Jane. He fitted it on her wrist as he explained. "A vortex manipulator. I thought long and hard about the most fitting way to get revenge on you, and came to the conclusion that, seeing how much you liked travelling through time and space with the Doctor (oh yes, I did my homework), I would send you on one last trip through time and space."

"Well that's not going to work" said Rani contemptuously. "If that device is on her wrist, she'll be able come straight back!"

"Oh no, I don't think so, Rani. You see, this little machine here is taking her to the end of time – 10 seconds before time ends, to be precise. Which although is enough time to be overcome with despair for having been responsible for destroying your race – not to mention being about to die yourself – it is not enough time to reprogram the destination of this machine." The Slitheen leaned conspiratorially towards Rani (who recoiled) as he said "_that_ takes just over a minute.

"So," he straightened up and leered at Sarah Jane, who glared defiantly back, "goodbye Sarah Jane Smith!

Try as she might, Sarah Jane couldn't get free of the alien's grip, but she managed to throw her sonic lipstick to Rani, who caught it, and as the Slitheen pressed a button on the device, Rani aimed the sonic at it.

But she was too late, and Sarah Jane disappeared before their eyes.

"Sarah Jane!" Clyde struggled furiously against his captor and Rani, being so overcome with anguish, barely resisted when a Slitheen pulled the sonic lipstick from her grasp and handed it to their leader.

The leader sauntered over to the machines and pulled a lever. A computer screen flashed '30:00' and immediately began to countdown. "Nice try, little children, but you have failed. You have lost your precious Sarah Jane forever and in 30 minutes, this machinery will be ready to extract all the oxygen from this pitiful, primitive planet. Tie them up."

"You can't do this!" Clyde yelled. "We'll stop you! You may have got rid of Sarah Jane but there's still us – and we're vital members of her team. All the times that Sarah Jane has stopped aliens like Slitheen, we've helped, so we can stop you."

The Slitheen laughed derisively. "You make me laugh, you really do. What do you honestly think you can do? You're just children with no weapons, no plan and no backup!"

Clyde and Rani scowled but the Slitheen chuckled and wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes.

"There's still Torchwood and UNIT – and the Doctor. There's no way you're going to get away with this," Rani stated fiercely.

"I hate to destroy your hopes, you know," the Slitheen began, grinning evilly, "but we've drained the power from both torchwood and UNIT's systems, so they'll have no idea what is happening until it is too late, and as for the Doctor," the Slitheen spat his name contemptuously, "we have trapped him on another planet for the next 24 hours.

"Now I tire of their whining, please put them in the other room. We must make last-minute adjustments to our machinery. In 30 minutes – or rather 29 minutes," he corrected, checking the computer screen, "this planet will be gasping its last."

The other Slitheen dragged Clyde and Rani, struggling furiously, to the other room through the above-mentioned door.

* * *

><p>So, here goes: the start of my first uploaded story... please review, sorry if it's rubbish!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2: Loss

"I can't believe she's gone." Rani's eyes were bloodshot, and tears ran silently down her face. The two were tied back to back in a room leading off the main library room, and Clyde wished with all his heart that his arms were free to comfort Rani.

"I know," he said. "There were so many times when we were in life-threatening situations together but I was always concentrating so hard on how to stop whatever alien we were dealing with to ever think about what it would be like to lose one of us, or how it would feel –" his voice broke.

And even if they had, Rani thought, they would never have imagined how the pain of it gnawed at their hearts.

"And Sarah Jane," she began, "she's so invincible. Think about all the things she's done and all the alien invasions she stopped. She could never..." she trailed off, unable to say the word. "And how are we supposed to go on without her?"

Clyde shook his head. "I don't know, but we will. We've got to. For her sake, and for the sake of everyone on this planet. Those Slitheen think they're so clever, and think it's ok to wipe out a species 'cos there's no one to stop them, but they're so wrong because there's still us, and if what they live for is nothing more than money and revenge, then they can never defeat the human race 'cos we've got so much more to live for, and to fight for."

Rani turned her head towards Clyde and smiled sadly. She was amazed to see how passionate he was – it showed how much he cared Sarah Jane, she supposed.

"You're right, Clyde," she said. "We've got to carry on; we've got to stop the Slitheen. It's what she would have wanted. We just have to work out how."

Both teenagers, fuelled with grim determination, racked their brains for an idea.

Then Clyde had an idea. "I was tied up like this once before when that weirdo shopkeeper with the parrot sent us to different points in time, and I escaped because the guy I was with had a pen knife in his pocket. Do you have anything useful in your pockets?"

"Damn!" Rani exclaimed. "My school skirt doesn't even have pockets! What about you?"

Clyde thought. "Well, I'm pretty sure I have half a yorkie bar... a couple of stink-bombs I was going to use to liven up Maths..." (Rani rolled her eyes) "...oh, and my phone of course."

"Yeah, well they're really going to help us escape," Rani said sarcastically.

"Yeah all right, but it was worth a try. And at least we won't starve. Do you want some yorkie? Oh no, sorry, I forgot – girls aren't allowed them."

"You're unbelievable." Rani lifted her chin a little higher as if to show she was superior to Clyde. "What we need," she began, getting back to business, "is a plan."

"What we need is Luke then. He'd be able to cut this rope and pick the lock of the door with a yorkie and two stink-bombs in no time," Clyde said. Rani nodded in dismal agreement.

But then, a thought came to her. "Wait! Did you say you had your phone?"

"Well, yeah, of course. Clyde's number one rule: never go anywhere without a phone. But I don't think now is exactly the time to play snake 2."

"I don't want to play games you idiot – I want to phone Luke!"

Clyde stopped smirking and a smile spread over his face. "That might just work," he said slowly.

After a small amount of fumbling, Rani managed to extract Clyde's phone from his pocket, who snatched it from her and dialled Luke's number, putting it on loudspeaker. They waited tensely for Luke to pick up, but instead they heard the cool, unemotional tones of the answer phone voice. Clyde cursed.

He waited for the beep and then said, "Lukey boy? It's Clyde. What the hell are you doing with your phone off? Look, we need you: the Slitheen are back and this lot are even more insane than usual. They want to extract all the earth's oxygen and sell it for spaceship fuel and they've captured us and tied us up in the West Ealing Library so we need your help! Oh, and we only have" (he checked his watch) "25 minutes, so please hurry." He hung up.

"If Luke hasn't even got our message yet, how is he supposed to get here from Oxford in time?" asked Rani.

Clyde didn't answer – he had no reply to reassure her with. They sat in silence for a few seconds until Rani observed quietly, "you didn't tell him about Sarah Jane."

"It's not really something you can tell someone on an answer phone message," he replied. Again they lapsed into silence, their hearts heavy with the hole in their lives where Sarah Jane had been.

"I wish we could do something – stop those damned Slitheen."

"We've done all we can," Rani said. "I guess now all we can do is wait."

And they waited.

* * *

><p>This was really sad to write, what with the lovely Elisabeth Sladen having died :(<p> 


	3. Chapter 3: An Unexpected Visit

In a semi-dark room, a teenage girl was sleeping deeply. She was pretty, with pale skin and long brown hair. Her chest rose and fell gently and her small mouth was slightly open, creating an image of absolute innocence. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length brown hair materialised in the centre of the room. Sarah Jane shifted her feet to keep her balance and stood for a moment – disorientated – breathing heavily, before glancing thoughtfully at the device on her wrist. It must have started to take her into the future before Rani deactivated it with the sonic lipstick, she realised, leaving her somewhere in between – b_ut where exactly, or perhaps when?_ – she wondered.

Still in shock, she began to take in her surroundings, and saw that the girl was stirring. Quickly, she tried to reprogram the device to take her back, but the sonicing had drained its energy. The girl opened her eyes, blinking blearily, and sat up, switching on her bedside lamp. The two stared at each other.

"Um, hello," Sarah Jane started, awkwardly. "I'm terribly sorry, for... intruding... I'll just be going. It's probably best if you just forget about me." She headed towards the door, half-smiling at the improbability of the situation. She did not know where she was going – or where she was at the moment, for that matter – but she had to get away of other people and wait until the time travel device regained its energy before trying to program the device to take her back.

"Wait," the girl said. Sarah Jane decided it was best to ignore her and hope she would forget about her, so she continued towards the door and opened it. However, the next thing the girl said stopped her in her tracks: "Sarah Jane?"

For a moment, Sarah Jane was frozen, unable to move, but slowly, she forced herself to turn around and face this mysterious teenager. "Have we met?" she enquired at last.

At this, the girl stared at her as if this thought had not occurred to her. "No, I don't think so." Her voice was quiet and vulnerable.

"But then how do you know who I am?" As always, Sarah Jane's curiosity conquered her shock.

The girl continued to stare at her. "I don't know," she whispered.


	4. Chapter 4: A Phone Call

Luke was one of the last to leave the lecture theatre, having stayed behind to tell the lecturer a theory he had to solve the fault in the Physics department's secret experimental teleport device. As he strolled back to the college, he checked his phone, which he kept off in lectures, and saw he had a missed call from Clyde. He grinned – he loved university and had made some great friends but Clyde was still his number one mate. He dialled Clyde's number and held the phone up to his ear.

45 miles away, Clyde's phone rang. He answered it quickly before the Slitheen would hear.

"Clyde?" asked a familiar voice.

"Lukey boy! Why the hell was your phone off – I thought I'd taught you better than that!"

Luke laughed. "You're getting worse than Mum." Do you remember when she phoned me every other day in fresher's week?"

Both Clyde's look of annoyance and Rani's of amusement vanished at the mention of Sarah Jane.

"Yeah," Clyde said weakly, trying to sound amused. "Sorry but this is urgent – didn't you get the message I left?"

"No, I didn't listen to it – I thought it would be easier just to phone you. Why? What's happened?"

Clyde quickly filled him in on the situation, leaving out Sarah Jane's disappearance.

Luke's face darkened. "We only have 20 minutes? That isn't enough time for me to get to Ealing! Unless..."

"Unless what?" Clyde prompted.

"Unless I break the code to the ETD building, fix the cameras on a loop, add what the device needs to make it work, find out the library's coordinates from K9 and program it to take me there."

"Say that again," Clyde said.

"Sorry. I was thinking as I went. Oxford's physics department have been developing a teleport device in secret – ETD for short – and it's just possible that I can get it to work."

"Oxford is cooler than I thought!" Clyde remarked.

"How long do you think it will take?" asked Rani.

"Hi Rani. I honestly don't know how long it would take – it might not work at all, you see, because it's just a theory I have."

"Oh great," Clyde said sarcastically.

"Hey, when has Luke ever failed when it comes to technology?" Rani pointed out.

"Tr –" Clyde was in the middle of saying "true" when the door handle creaked down. They froze. The door opened mercilessly and in stumped Flam Slitheen, who peered around suspiciously. For a moment there was silence, other than the heavy beating of their hearts, and they both prayed he wouldn't find the phone, but then Luke's voice, made tinny by the phone, filled the room.

"Clyde, Rani?"

Wordlessly the Slitheen grabbed Clyde's phone and crushed it between his fingers.

"Hey!" Clyde yelled. "That was expensive!"

The Slitheen brought his head close to theirs so that they were almost drowning in his large, ink black eyes. "Our leader, Grol, didn't see the need to dispose of you because you're just children, but when I tell him this, he might just change his mind." Leering ominously, he left the room.

"Why do aliens always have anger management issues?" Clyde complained. "That's the fourth phone I've lost when helping Sarah Jane! And how am I supposed to explain it to mum? Oh yeah, sorry – this one got crushed by a giant green alien while I was saving the world."

Rani laughed, but her smile did not last for long – the world had yet to be saved this time, and it would seem they would be in even more trouble than ever when the lead Slitheen, Grol, heard about their phone call.


	5. Chapter 5: Memory

Several years away, Sarah Jane retraced her steps back towards the girl. "Maybe if you tell me about who you are then we can work out how you know who I am... who are your parents, for example."

The girl's gaze went out of focus for a few seconds as she thought before she looked back at Sarah Jane with horror in her eyes. "I don't know!" she said again. "I can't think – everything is a blur. I can't even remember who my parents are! Oh god, what's wrong with me?"

Sarah Jane was painfully aware of the seconds ticking away until the Slitheen began to carry out their machinations, but the pitiable bewilderment in the girl's expression melted her heart (it made her think of when she had first met Luke) – plus her curiosity had been roused.

She sat down on the bed. "Ok, don't panic," she said gently, "maybe we can figure this out – who you are, and how you know who I am. Is there anything you can remember?"

"It's strange – like I said, my memory is just a blur, and I can't remember anything, but I do _know_ some things, like that my name is Anna, I'm 15 years old, this house is my home, I go to Hammersmith Secondary School – and, inexplicably, that you're Sarah Jane Smith, who saves the world from her attic. "

"So if you know those things, you can remember some things?" Sarah Jane asked, trying to understand. "Like you remember going to school?"

"No, not exactly," Anna said slowly. "I know I go to Hammersmith Secondary and I can picture the building, but I can't remember actually going there, having lessons, chatting to my friends... anything. Sarah Jane, what's wrong with me?"

Sarah Jane stood up, flipped open her watch scanner and began pacing.

"I don't know!" she said. "It's obviously not natural – the fact that you are in your house all alone is enough to show that (this scanner told me you were," she explained). "Someone has wiped your mind, it would seem. But why?" she wondered to herself. Abruptly, she stopped pacing and closed her scanner.

"What year is it?" she asked.

Anna was startled by the change of subject, and gave Sarah Jane a look that suggested she knew vaguely that it was not a usual thing to ask, but she did not question it.

"It's 2031," she said.

"Right," Sarah Jane nodded. Despite everything she still felt a twinge of wonder that she had done it again – she had travelled in time.

"I really wish I could help you – I will help you – but right now I've got to get back to where I'm from. I've got some friends there who need my help, but when that's sorted" – or _if_, she thought to herself – "I'll come back and get to the bottom of this."

Anna nodded bravely.

"First, I've got to mend this," Sarah Jane gestured to the vortex manipulator on her wrist.

"What is it?" Anna asked, curiously.

Sarah Jane toyed with the idea of telling her (partly just because it was a relief that Anna was showing a different emotion to bewilderment and fear) but decided against it – she didn't want to waste any time.

"I think it's easier if I don't say."

Anna narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "You asked what year it was, as if you didn't know yourself, you materialised in my room and you have a gadget you need to mend in order to get back to where you're from... that sounds like time travel to me."

Sarah Jane looked at her in amazement. How had she come to that conclusion – no one _ever_ did. When she first travelled back in time in the tardis by accident she had thought she had ended up in some bizarre pantomime! However, she quickly covered up her surprise.

"Time travel?" she said. "What on earth are you talking about?"

The girl, however, was not perturbed. "Are you from the past or the future?" she asked eagerly, and then, assessing her, "you can't be far in the past – or future, probably – because you're wearing jeans, but –"

"Alright, alright!" Sarah Jane interrupted, rather amused. "I'm from the past – 2011."

"Wow," Anna said softly, with reverence.

Sarah Jane couldn't help smiling. "Yes," she agreed. She turned her full attention to the device on her wrist. Luckily she had seen something similar before and had an idea of how to work it. It was on now and she set the coordinates for her attic in 2011, but it still did not have enough energy to transport her. As she worked, Anna asked shyly, "can I come with you?"

Sarah Jane's heart sank. "No, I can't do that," she said.

"Oh, please!" Anna implored. "I'm..." She paused. "I'm scared," she admitted.

"Of what?"

"Myself. What kind of person am I that I forget my parents, my friends, everyone I love? What does that make me? If I have to stay here alone, that thought will kill me."

Sarah Jane looked into her large, anguished eyes. Their colour reminded her of her own. "Anna, it's not your fault that you can't remember – it doesn't make you a bad person. Someone has done something very bad to you and I promise you I will get to the bottom of this later but I can't take you with me. It'll be dangerous and I don't want to be responsible for you as well, as stepping into your past is extremely risky anyway!"

As Sarah Jane finished speaking, a crash emanated from downstairs and both women froze.

"I thought you said the house was empty."

"It _was_," Sarah Jane answered. "Stay here," she ordered, before edging silently towards the door. She opened it and stepped out to find herself confronted with the unfortunately familiar sight of Ruby White, gun pointed directly at her heart.


	6. Chapter 6: Greed

In Oxford, Luke stood in front of the teleport device, panting. The teleport itself was a large metal arch, with control buttons on the inside, similar to in a lift.

So far, everything had gone to plan. It hadn't taken him long to break the secret code to the lock of the door, he had managed to set the security cameras on a loop, and he had the coordinates of West Ealing Library memorized. He also had not run into any of the armed guards that he had once been warned patrolled the building. Now came the hard part – trying to get the device to work. He sighed. At any other time, he would have enjoyed the challenge immensely, but he needed to get to Ealing as quickly as possible.

He checked his watch nervously as he worked and progress seemed slow but eventually, he stood back and wiped his brow.

"What are you doing?"

Luke spun round.

"You have abused my trust. I should never even have told you about this – I wasn't supposed to tell students, you knew that – but to break in and meddle with it... you have some nerve." It was his physics lecturer: Dr Barnes. Luke's heart sank right down to his shoes.

"I'm really sorry, I wish I could explain... it's an emergency."

"An emergency that needs a teleport that doesn't work? Step away from it Luke. You might be clever but this is beyond you."

"You don't understand –"

"I said step away!"

Reluctantly, Luke stepped back.

"There we go," he said encouragingly. He walked towards the device and inspected it to make sure everything was in order. "What were you trying to do, anyway?"

Luke realised he was going to have to explain, and started to summarise the situation but he soon realised the doctor wasn't listening. Instead he stood perfectly still, staring at the teleport.

"Dr Barnes?"

"You've got it working! _You _have got it working!" He laughed gleefully and rubbed his hands together. "Well I never..."

"Um... yeah, and I really need to use it!"

The lecturer looked at him, startled. "Use it? Certainly not! I can't have you taking the credit for this! This is my invention."

"Look, I don't want the credit – you can have all of it, but I need to use it to help my friends. They're in danger."

Dr Barnes shook his head. "I'm sorry Luke, but I can't risk it. No one will use this device but me, and I will become famous for having invented it!"

Luke gaped at him in incredulity. The greedy, power-hungry man in front of him was not like his lecturer at all! Luke had always liked and respected him for being friendly, enthusiastic and easy-going, and they had got on very well.

Luke walked towards the teleport and tried one last time. "Please, Dr Barnes, I –"

"Get away!" Dr Barnes, half-crazed with greed, hit Luke in the face.

"This is my victory."


	7. Chapter 7: Reunion

"Well, well, Sarah Jane Smith, what a pleasant... surprise." Ruby's voice showed that for her, it was no surprise at all.

"Ruby White," Sarah Jane replied through gritted teeth. "How did you escape?" she couldn't help asking.

"Oh, I made a bargain with someone – none of your concern," Ruby dismissed airily.

Sarah Jane narrowed her eyes but let it pass for the moment. "I hope it didn't take twenty years to escape?" she enquired, hoping the exact opposite.

"Oh no, not at all," Ruby laughed. "But there was a particular advantage to coming to this time. The only problem was I needed you here too. But now that you are, I'll waste no more time." She readied her gun.

"You're going to shoot me? That's not like you. You can't feed off the emotions of someone who is dead," Sarah Jane said, playing for time – and she was proud of how cool her voice was.

"Oh I'm not going to kill you – yet. This is loaded with sleeping darts. I thought that would be the closest I'd get you to cooperating." Ruby fired the gun but at the same time, Anna, who had been listening at the door, threw herself at Sarah Jane so that they both fell over, and pushed the button on the time travel machine. They vanished into the past leaving Ruby in an empty house to scream with rage.

They landed hard on the attic floor. Anna quickly rolled of Sarah Jane and offered her a hand to pull her up.

"Are you ok? I'm so sorry I landed on you."

Sarah Jane laughed. "Anna, you just saved my life – do you honestly think I mind if I get a bruise from it? Anyway, it should be me asking you if you're ok – you have just travelled twenty years into the past."

Anna grinned and looked out of the window. "This is really 2011? That's amazing!" She studied the old fashioned cars driving past. Then a thought came to her and she turned back to face Sarah Jane.

"I'm minus five!" she breathed.

Sarah Jane smiled at her excitement, remembering how she had felt on all the times she had travelled through time with the Doctor.

"But how did you know that the device had regained enough energy, or how to use it?" she asked.

Anna shrugged. "I guessed how to work it from watching you, but I didn't know if it had enough energy – that was just luck."

"You guessed how to use it from just watching me set the coordinates?" Sarah Jane studied her with a sceptical expression. "I'm inclined to think you've seen one before."

"I wish I knew," Anna sighed. "Anyway," she continued, wanting to draw the attention away from herself, "who was that?"

Sarah Jane quickly recounted her previous encounter with Ruby White. "But the thing I would like to know," she concluded, "is how she escaped, and why she travelled twenty years in the future."

"Or how she knew you would go there," Anna pointed out.

Sarah Jane nodded, her expression worried. However, then she remembered herself. "Anyway, we can worry about that later. The more urgent problem is the Slitheen."

"Slitheen." Anna recognised the word. "They're aliens, right?"

"Yes. Of the worst kind. All they care about is making as much money as possible, and this lot plan to extract all the earth's oxygen and sell it as spaceship fuel. We need to stop them and rescue Clyde and Rani." She paused. "Do you know who Clyde and Rani are?"

Anna nodded slowly. "Yes, I do. But..." she hesitated. "How do you know they're still alive?"

Sarah Jane looked at her gravely. "I don't. But they've got to be." They held each other's gaze for a moment, seeing in each other's eyes the possibilities they both wanted to ignore. Sarah Jane looked away abruptly.

"Mr Smith, I need you." Steam erupted from the wall as Mr Smith opened out, accompanied with the familiar fanfare.

"Sarah Jane," the Xylok greeted her in even tones, and, before she could say anything, "I have received an urgent message."

"Play it," Sarah Jane commanded.

The iridescent crystal background was replaced with the image of a pretty teenage girl who was familiar to both of them from the colour of her eyes to her worried expression: it was Anna. Sarah Jane looked at the real Anna for answers but she only stared at the image of herself in shock – it was clear she had no recollection of this.

"Sarah Jane?" the recorded Anna began. "You don't know me yet but I know you, and I need your help. This is the year 2031 and, well, it's Ruby White – I know you've met her before – and she's kidnapped my parents. I don't know exactly what she's up to but I know what she does to people – draining them by feeding on their emotions – and I can't let her do that to my parents, or anyone else, and I don't think you would either. You see, my name is Anna Smith. My parents are Luke and Maria. I wouldn't be asking this of you, especially as you aren't from my time, but you're the only person I could think to tell because Clyde, Rani and the future you are investigating in the Himalayas at the moment where there's no signal, and I needed to tell someone because I know – there's no time to explain how – that she's coming back to get rid of me." In the background a crash could be heard and the recording of Anna froze. "That's her, I have to go!" The screen went blank.

They looked at each other in disbelief, Sarah Jane's reason for wanting Mr Smith forgotten. "Your parents... are Luke and Maria," she said slowly and then, after a few moments, "that at least explains how you know me: you're my granddaughter!" She laughed in amazement and held out her arms. And Anna, previously so lost and vulnerable, felt wanted and at home enveloped in Sarah Jane's kind arms. They stood their embracing for a while, drinking in the feeling of being reunited with someone so dear to them, and although they had not known they had been missing anything, now that they knew, they felt the loss keenly. When they pulled apart, both pairs of identical green eyes were wet.

"But what about Luke and Maria – what can we do?" Anna's anxiety returned. She might not remember her parents but she knew who Luke and Maria were in the same way that she knew Sarah Jane.

"I don't know, but if we don't stop the Slitheen, there won't be a future Luke and Maria! We've got to deal with the Slitheen first."

Anna nodded in agreement.

"In which case," Sarah Jane continued, "we need vinegar!"

She received a strange look. "Vinegar?" Anna repeated.

"Yes. Slitheen are calcium-based life-forms so they react fatally with acetic acid – vinegar for example. Do you not remember that?"

Anna shook her head. "I can't remember much, even if I know who I am now."

"It must have been Ruby who wiped your memory."

They ran down to the kitchen. After several encounters with the Slitheen, Sarah Jane always had some vinegar stashed away somewhere, and they quickly found one full bottle of vinegar. Sarah Jane passed it to Anna and looked into the cupboard to see if there was any more. She just turned round to conclude she only had the one bottle as Anna crumpled to the floor, the bottle of vinegar rolling away from her and smashing. A moment later she came to and sat up blinking.

"Are you alright?" Sarah Jane asked worriedly, on her knees beside her.

"Yeah, I'm ok. I had a sudden surge of pain, that's all – it was nothing." Sarah Jane's frown deepened. Anna's glance fell on the broken glass.

"Oh I broke your last bottle of vinegar! I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Sarah Jane helped her up. "We'll just have to get some more."

But they had no car, as Sarah Jane's was still parked in front of the library, so they couldn't waste time walking to a fish and chip shop, and couldn't risk teleporting to a public area. There was only one solution: Gita.

Sarah Jane walked slowly down the garden path to the Chandra's house, cursing silently with every step. Gita answered the door almost immediately and greeted her with her usual enthusiasm.

"Hello Sarah! What can I do for you?"

"Hi Gita, I was wondering if you had any vinegar?" Gita gave her a strange look. "I've completely run out, and I was planning to make some... some chutney."

"Chutney."

"Yes!" Sarah Jane said, improvising wildly. "I'm having some friends coming over later in the week and their very fond of chutney."

"I'll go have a look." Gita bustled back into the house and returned a few moments later with a bottle of vinegar.

"Thank you so much! Must dash... see you later."

And with that, she turned and hurried back to her own house, clutching the bottle in amazement that it had worked – when on earth had her excuses got so astoundingly pathetic?

Anna was waiting for her in the hallway. "Got it," Sarah Jane said, holding up the bottle. "Now, I'll just set the coordinates for the library and we can teleport there, seeing as I have no car. Oh, by the way, chutney does have vinegar in it, doesn't it?"

"Sometimes," said Anna, clearly worried for Sarah Jane's sanity.

"Good. Right, the coordinates are set – put your hand on the device."

"Wait, do we have a plan?"

"I'm afraid I never have time to make plans," Sarah Jane answered, holding out her arm.

Anna grinned, touched the device, and together, they disappeared.


	8. Chapter 8: The Chase

Rani was right: they were in a lot of trouble. Grol threw open the door and marched in, Flam and Hosteck right behind him.

"It seems I was wrong about you," said Grol. "I thought I didn't need to bother disposing of you, but one can never be too careful."

Flam cut their bonds and they were dragged back into the main room of the library.

"Right. Kill them."

It was all over. They were going to die. Clyde glared defiantly, Rani closed her eyes. _Hurry up, Luke! _she thought. _The earth needs you, even if you're too late for us. _And she braced herself for the end.

But instead, she heard a familiar voice, a voice she thought she would never hear again.

"Stop right there!"

Rani's eyes flew open. It was her: Sarah Jane Smith, waistcoat and all, looking angrier than Rani had ever seen her, and holding a bottle of vinegar positioned for attack.

"Impossible," Grol breathed.

"Let. Them. Go. Now. Or I will empty this bottle over you; I think you're familiar with its contents. It's quite neat, really – it's harmless to your _prisoners _but fatal to you."

Glowering, the Slitheen let go of Clyde and Rani, who ran to Sarah Jane.

"Sarah Jane! How on earth did you escape?" Rani and Clyde noticed the teenage girl standing beside her, who smiled shyly at them. "And who's this?"

"I'll explain later," Sarah Jane promised, and turned back to the Slitheen.

"Now then. Unprogram that machinery."

Flam and Hosteck began to move grudging towards the controls but Grol pulled them towards him and placed Boon, the child Slitheen, in front of him.

"I said unprogram it!"

The Slitheen smiled maliciously. "Or what? You kill a child? Even you wouldn't kill a ten year old, whatever species they were." He looked down at Boon.

"Get it, my daughter," he ordered.

The child approached Sarah Jane, who was shaking visibly with indecision: kill a child, or put the Earth at risk? Either was unthinkable.

"Do it, Sarah Jane!" Clyde shouted.

But she couldn't. She backed away, but Boon only advanced faster. She grabbed the bottle, and Sarah Jane held on. For a few seconds, a silent battle ensued between the self-satisfied child and the white-faced Sarah Jane, but even child Slitheen were stronger than humans, and Boon soon wrenched the vinegar out of her grasp.

Boon held the bottle up in triumph and returned to her family.

"Well done, lass."

Hosteck gingerly took the vinegar from her and threw it in the bin.

"Now," said Grol, "get them!" He made a lunge at them and the humans dodged it, Clyde and Rani going left, Sarah Jane and Anna going right.

"Run!" Sarah Jane cried and, grabbing Anna's hand, tore up the stairs, not daring to look back and see where Clyde and Rani went.

They could hear heavy feet on the stairs behind them, and as just before they disappeared into the labyrinth of bookshelves to their right, Sarah Jane looked over her shoulder to see who was pursuing them. It was Flam and Hosteck.

Sarah Jane – although, of course, she would never have admitted it to anyone – was beginning to panic. They were trapped upstairs with no means of defence, with the aliens with the best sense of smell in the galaxy: they couldn't fight, they couldn't hide, and they couldn't run forever. Behind them, they could hear Hosteck pushing bookcases over in order to get to them.

After several minutes of hard sprinting, making random turns as they went, the two humans emerged from the maze perpendicular to the stairs, several metres to the right of the top of the stairs – they had done a big U. Flam had been guarding the top of the stairs while Hosteck had followed them, and now both advanced. Around the hole in the floor that the stairs made was a waist high wall of glass, and it was towards this that the trapped humans backed. There was no way out.

* * *

><p>When they had been separated from Sarah Jane and Anna, Clyde and Rani realised there was only one way they could go: towards the room where they had been tied up earlier. They slammed the door shut behind them and Clyde wedged a chair under the doorknob, but they knew this wouldn't hold the Slitheen for long. They looked around frantically for something to help them as Grol and Boon began to bang on the door. The room had one small window, which they would just about be able to squeeze out of – <em>hopefully<em> – and so they rushed for it. Rani fumbled with the catch and tried to open the window, but it was jammed.

"Let me try." Clyde gently pushed Rani out of the way and pushed the window with all his strength.

"Come _on_!" urged Rani. The force of the Slitheen's bangs was causing the whole room to shake.

"I'm trying!" Clyde replied.

Eventually the window opened, just as the door broke off its hinges. They wouldn't have enough time to climb out of the window... but then, as they looked upon the two aliens with teeth bared, Clyde had a brainwave. He drew the stink-bombs from his pocket and aimed them into the mouths of the Slitheen.

The aliens reeled back as the stench reached their highly-sensitive noses and nearly suffocated them. Rani, noticing, that Grol still had Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick, snatched it out of his grasp before following Clyde threw the window, and out into the car park.

"That was brilliant, Clyde!" exclaimed Rani, as soon as she had her breath back.

"Why do you have to be so surprised?" Clyde grumbled, and Rani kissed him, full on the lips.

For a moment, Clyde forgot everything. He forgot about the Slitheen, about the plan to kill the human race, about Sarah Jane trapped upstairs, and just thought about the beautiful girl he loved. He was aware of her hair tickling his face and he could smell her perfume. His Rani.

But, just as suddenly as she had begun, Rani pulled away, looking embarrassed, and Clyde reluctantly returned to reality.

"Sarah Jane," she reminded him, and ran towards the entrance on the building.

* * *

><p>As the Slitheen advanced, Sarah Jane and Anna suddenly heard Rani's voice calling up the stairs.<p>

"Slitheen? It's over. We've beaten your leader, and we have the sonic lipstick."

"And vinegar!" Clyde's voice added.

Flam and Hosteck exchanged glances, and then Flam raised his voice so that Clyde and Rani would be able to hear.

"Over? No, it's not over, because we have your precious Sarah Jane cornered. If you destroy our machines, we'll kill her."

They were right, Sarah Jane realised, as the aliens leered at her. They were cornered.

But Anna darted forwards, towards Hosteck, to grab the heaviest book within reach – a hardback copy of The Order of the Phoenix – and threw it at the glass wall behind them, creating a gap wide enough for the two of them to jump onto the stairs. They landed halfway down, the impact jarring their knees, but they carried on running down them, Flam and Hosteck right behind them.

Rani was positioned next to the Slitheen's machinery with the sonic lipstick pointed at it, and Clyde had retrieved the vinegar from the bin.

"Did you just..." Clyde began, as Sarah Jane ran towards them.

"It was Anna's idea. How did you escape? Where are the other Slitheen?"

Before Clyde or Rani could answer her question, Grol and Boon staggered towards them, coughing and retching.

"Stink-bomb," Clyde said casually, grinning with success.

"Clyde threw stink-bombs right in their mouths, and their still recovering," Rani explained, laughing.

Flam and Hosteck reached the humans and Grol and Boon joined them. Clyde opened the bottle of vinegar.

"Don't you move a step."

"Clyde," Sarah Jane warned. Clyde rolled his eyes: even now she didn't want them to die.

Rani gave Sarah Jane her lipstick, who stepped towards the machinery.

"I think we've had quite enough of that," she remarked to the Slitheen, and soniced the machinery. The countdown stopped with 10 seconds to go.

Flam howled in rage.

"What are we going to do with them?" asked Clyde. "They won't just go quietly.

Sarah Jane gave him a look that showed she knew what he was thinking.

"Please, Sarah Jane, let us leave now in our spaceship, and we promise not to come back!

"We can't trust them."

"I know. I wasn't born yesterday, Rani." She sighed. "I'm left with no choice but to call in the Judoon. The Slitheen family have been sentenced guilty by Raxacoricofallapatorius," (Clyde couldn't help grinning at the name) "and these lot planned to destroy a level 5 planet, anyway."

"No, please! They'll kill us." The Slitheen's ferocity was replaced with panic.

"They might, but that's not my fault. If I don't hand you over, then I put 6 billion people at risk."

"We could use your vortex manipulator," Anna said quietly.

Sarah Jane looked at her. This girl would sacrifice being able to get back home to show mercy to murdering aliens. "No. We need that. We can't let Ruby get away with what she's planning either."

"Ruby? As in Ruby _White_?" Clyde and Rani exchanged bewildered glances.

"Yes," Sarah Jane confirmed grimly. "She's 20 years in the future, where Anna is from – she has the future Luke and Maria captive."

"What?"

"I'll explain later," Sarah Jane promised, her eyes flicking towards the Slitheen.

"But how can we get hold of the Judoon?" asked Rani, changing the subject back.

"Well, Mr Smith can contact anyone, and I thought their number might come in useful one day so I asked Mr Smith for it and put it in my phone. We can call them like any other number.

Clyde laughed. "Imagine having Judoon on your contacts list..."

"Not so fast!"

They jumped as Ruby White materialised in front of them.


	9. Chapter 9: Ruby White

"Hello again," she said sweetly to Clyde and Rani, who glowered back. "You thought you'd got away, did you, Sarah Jane? Well you're not the only one with a vortex manipulator – actually, this is technically the very same vortex manipulator as yours, just a bit older, but that's besides the point. So let's get down to business, shall we? Give me that vinegar."

Clyde looked at her in contempt. "Why should I? It's not like you have a gun or something."

But Ruby smiled. "I have something much worse. I tried to use it before, but it didn't work too well with us in different periods of time." Out of her coat, Ruby produced a small circular device with a large button in the centre, which she pressed, and Anna fell to the floor, gasping in pain.

"What have you done?" Sarah Jane was on her knees by a horizontal Anna for the second time that day.

"When I wiped her memory with the intention of eliminating any threat she held, I inserted a poison disc into her, to be activated by this" (she indicated the circular device in her hand) "when I felt like it. I thought watching your granddaughter die would provide such delicious emotions." Ruby gazed with relish at Anna, white and panting on the floor, evidently holding in moans.

"_Granddaughter_? What is going _on?_!" Both Clyde and Rani looked more confused than ever.

"She's Luke's daughter in the future," explained Sarah Jane – "no way!" – before turning imploring eyes on Ruby. "Please stop hurting her!"

"Give me the vinegar, the vortex manipulator and your sonic device."

"No!" Anna managed to say. "Don't do it!"

"But if we don't Anna will die!" Sarah Jane countered, as she stood up and slowly gave Ruby her sonic lipstick. "Give her the vinegar, Clyde."

Clyde reluctantly handed it over, and Ruby pressed the button again, and Anna lay still, looking exhausted but free. The vinegar was the thrown in the bin for the second time.

"But why do you want to get rid of the vinegar – since when have Slitheen and Qetesh been friendly?" asked Rani.

After you sent me back to my prison, its gravity lock disengaged and I was sent hurtling through space until I almost collided with a Slitheen ship travelling through the solar system. The Slitheen freed me and said they had met me before. In 2011, they had been on earth to get revenge on Sarah Jane Smith but had been defeated until I appeared and had allowed them to escape into the past with the assurance that Sarah Jane would be avenged upon, provided they helped me when they next saw me on their spaceship by giving me a vortex manipulator to take me to the year 2031. They said they couldn't meet you again themselves because it would disrupt their own timeline, but were happy if they someone had got revenge on you.

"So I did as they said, travelling to 2031, and I kidnapped the Luke and Maria in order to consume their emotions. Their child – Anna – left a message to you before I wiped her mind. I knew you would come and rescue them so once I had fed on them and trapped you in the future, I planned to go back to 2011 and feed on Luke and Maria again – waste not, want not – as well as Clyde, Rani, and then the rest of the world – by doing what I was going to do last time I visited earth: helping invading aliens. But then my plans were disrupted slightly when you escaped back to 2011 and I had to follow you, but now I realise it was a necessary to step to complete the circle," Ruby concluded, and tossing the vortex manipulator that Sarah Jane had just given her at the Slitheen, who caught it and, leering unpleasantly, disappeared.

"You're mad. You went to 2031 just so you could 'feed' on some people more than once?" Clyde looked disgusted.

"I went to 2031 because that's what the Slitheen told me to do, but I wasn't going to sit there and wait before coming back, so I hatched a plan of my own."

"But why did you want to lure me into the future?"

"As delicious as your emotions are, I wanted to get the most painful revenge on you I could, so my plan was to make you watch your son and granddaughter die and then leave you there to live with the knowledge that they, and many other people living in 2011, were dead because of you. Until, of course, I'd drained the whole planet, when you would cease to exist too.

"But I don't know why I'm using the past tense – my plan hasn't changed." Ruby began pressing the buttons of her own vortex manipulator. "And don't bother trying anything, or this one gets it." She pointed at Anna, who was getting to her feet.


	10. Chapter 10: Teleportation

Luke was at a loss for what to do. He watched hopelessly as Dr Barnes fiddled with the teleport, making the last adjustments. _Think! _he urged himself. What could he do? Racking his brains, there was only one idea that came to him, futile as he was sure it would be. He knew this building was under twenty-four hour surveillance by armed guards, and he also knew UNIT – who had got involved as soon as they had discovered Oxford had stared the experiment – had ordered that if it were ever to work, all were strictly forbidden to use the device without their approval.

So he yelled, "Is anyone there? Come quickly – Dr Barnes is trying to use the ETD."

Almost immediately, two armed guards entered the room. "I think he's gone mad," Luke pointed to the blood on his face from when the lecturer had hit him. The men turned to Dr Barnes.

"Stop what you're doing, sir, this is UNIT property."

A furious argument between the lecturer and the soldiers, but Dr Barnes stepped reluctantly away from the teleport and, seeing that they were occupied, Luke crept to the device and set the co-ordinates for the library. But as he finished, one of the guards noticed him.

"You there! What are you doing?" The UNIT soldier pointed his gun at Luke but he stepped inside the arch regardless – he knew he wouldn't shoot him. The guard was running towards him and as Luke pressed the final button and his surroundings disappeared, he felt someone grip his arm: the guard was coming with him.


	11. Chapter 11: Injuries and Illnesses

With the threat of killing Anna if they did not co-operate, Sarah Jane had no choice but to do as Ruby said and touch the vortex manipulator on her wrist and allow herself and Anna to be taken to 2031. She took one last look at Clyde and Rani – who were panic-stricken by Ruby's plan and furious about being left behind. She might never see them again. If Ruby succeeded... but she couldn't – Sarah Jane never even wasted time contemplating the idea of her failing to save the earth. It was true she had no sonic and no plan but when had that ever stopped her? She tried to smile reassuringly at Clyde and Rani, although she wasn't sure if she succeeded, and braced herself for the journey.

But before Ruby could activate the device, Luke materialised, with a dazed looking soldier with a familiar red beret grabbing his arm.

"Luke!" Sarah Jane cried, pulling her hand away from Ruby's device and not knowing whether to be ecstatic at seeing her son or dismayed that he was now in immediate danger too.

The soldier let go of Luke and stood as if in a trance (it seemed he was a new recruit); Luke, logical as ever, quickly took in all the information he could from his surroundings, showing only a little surprise at seeing a Qetesh instead of Slitheen, before getting down to business.

"Step away from my friends, Qetesh."

"Come to join the party?" Ruby taunted.

Luke, in an uncharacteristic surge of anger, seized the gun of the soldier who had come with him from Oxford and pointed it at Ruby.

"I've come to stop you just like last time – remember?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "How could I forget. That's why I'm back: to get revenge on you and your precious 'friends'.

"Well you might as well forget those plans," Luke began, "because I'm holding a gun, in case you hadn't noticed."

Ruby raised her eyebrows. Even she knew this was not Luke's normal way of doing things.

"You're not the only one with a weapon, boy." Ruby pulled her circular device out of her pocket and pressed the button.

This time Anna couldn't hold back a scream as death coursed through her veins.

"Hand the gun over."

"Who is that?" Luke asked, not having noticed Anna before.

Ruby laughed coldly and folded her arms. "That, is your daughter."

"What?" Luke said, mystified.

"Anna's your daughter in the future – from 2031," Sarah Jane tried to explain, aware of the fact that Anna didn't have much time.

"And if the poison reaches her heart, she's dead, so hand it over!"

"I could shoot you right now."

"Then do it," Ruby challenged.

Luke didn't move. He was frozen, looking down at... could she really, truly be his daughter? It was the last thing he would ever have expected. In truth, it shouldn't matter at the moment: she would die whoever she was if Luke didn't hand the gun over or shoot Ruby. He lifted his eyes to the Qetesh. He had to shoot her, he _had_ to!

The others looked on anxiously as Luke stood with tortured eyes switching his gaze between the malevolent Ruby and the writhing Anna, the gun held out before him. In that moment, they knew he couldn't do it; he couldn't shoot someone in cold blood. Sarah Jane's morals were too deeply engrained in him. Before he had met her, he hadn't known anything about anything – Sarah Jane remembered his constant refrain of "is that good or bad?" – so he had accepted her views as his own, and they were too strong to ignore. Resignedly, he lowered his gun, and held it out to Ruby.

But for some reason, Luke giving his gun to Ruby caused UNIT soldier to come out of his trance.

"No!" he yelled, and lunged for his gun. In the struggle between him and Luke, the gun went off and Ruby was hit in the lower leg. She screeched in pain and dropped the device that activated the poison. Sarah Jane dived for it and pressed the button, vaguely noticing Anna fall still in her peripheral vision before rushing to Ruby.

"Where are you hit?" she asked as she unstrapped the vortex manipulator from Ruby's wrist. Ruby struggled but was too weak to stop her.

"Here, on my leg."

Sarah Jane rolled up her trouser leg and fished in her own trouser pocket for a tissue, which she pressed against the wound to control the bleeding.

"Remind me why we're helping the alien that was going to drain our life-essence from us," Clyde said, but Sarah Jane didn't answer him. Instead, she handed him the vortex manipulator.

"Take care of that," she instructed.

Luke and the UNIT soldier lay panting, the gun between them; neither had intended for the gun to go off. Luke stood up and saw something very wrong. He had seen Sarah Jane deactivate the poison disc in Anna, but the girl was lying motionless, her eyes closed, her chest not rising and falling at all. He checked for pulse but there was nothing. His mind reeled in shock – she was dead and it was his fault. Looking at her pale face, he could see something of Sarah Jane in her – although technically, of course, there was no way she could be related to Sarah Jane as she was his adoptive mother – and she reminded him of someone else as well... but she was dead. The emotion that was welling up inside him was the most illogical thing he had ever experienced, this anguish for a teenage girl he had never met. But somehow his heart knew how special this girl was to him even if his brain didn't. His daughter... Tears clouded his vision.

Rani sat beside him. "What's wrong? She isn't –"

Luke nodded.

"Oh Luke." She took his hand and squeezed it. After a few moments she glanced at Sarah Jane and Clyde, who were too busy with Ruby to have noticed.

"Shall I get Sarah Jane?" asked Rani.

Luke nodded again, incapable of speech. He heard his mum's cry of distress as Rani alerted her to the situation, and heard her rush over.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I've checked her pulse and there's nothing," Luke managed to say.

Sarah Jane sighed heavily with the weariness of one who has had her fair share of tragedy and put her arm around him.

"She saved my life, you know – twice. She was brilliant."

"If I had shot Ruby straight away we could have had time to save her."

"Don't wish for the burden of having taken someone's life, you're not a killer. I mean it: don't you dare blame yourself, you did the right thing, and this was Ruby's fault, not yours, do you hear?"

The tears began to slide down his cheeks, and Sarah Jane drew him into a tight hug, each making the other wet with their tears. The UNIT soldier came over to Sarah Jane and an argument about the Judoon ensued, leaving Luke alone with the dead girl. It shouldn't have ended this way. With a surge of determination, he began pumping her chest – he couldn't let her die! He had never performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as he called it, but he was familiar with the theory and he had to hope that would be enough.

But it wasn't; she remained lifeless. Luke buried his head in his hands. But then, he heard the miraculous sound of coughing, and opened his eyes to see her coming to.

"Luke?" she said weakly.

He beamed back.

The argument about the Judoon was halted and Sarah Jane rushed to them.

"Don't do that to me Anna – I'm getting old!"

"Now you admit it," muttered Clyde, and Sarah Jane shot him evils, but Clyde could see the smile she tried to hide playing about her lips.


	12. Chapter 12: Pizza, Judoon & Cups of Tea

A few minutes later, more UNIT soldiers arrived from Oxford and Ruby's leg was bandaged, 45 minutes after that, the Judoon arrived to take away their prisoner, and 30 minutes after that, Sarah Jane, Luke, Rani, Clyde and Anna were all slumped in the attic of 13 Bannerman Road, exhausted, cups of tea in hand. Sarah Jane and Anna had already been to 2031 to rescue adult Luke and Maria – and Anna's memories had been restored when she had seen her parents – but Anna had wanted to come back to 2011 one last time.

"Well, it's been an interesting break from exams, anyway," remarked Clyde.

"Slitheen, Qetesh, time-travel, and back to the attic for some tea," Anna added.

They all laughed, still slightly amazed that they were all still alive.

"What's going to happen about the Slitheen?" asked Rani. "I mean, if they escaped into the past, they'll be around now somewhere, so shouldn't we try and catch them?"

"I'm afraid we have no idea where they are," answered Sarah Jane, "but there are lots of Slitheen out there who escaped when their planet sentenced them to execution, all in hiding, but there are Judoon and other Raxacoricofallapatorian families who are trying to hunt them down."

"But that hasn't stopped them coming to earth before, so couldn't they come back?" Clyde pointed out.

"I'm sure they will. But we're more than a match for them," Sarah Jane smiled around at them all.

They stayed up late that evening, once Clyde and Rani had both phoned their anxious parents, reassuring them that they had just been revising at the library. Somebody decided to order pizza, and once everyone had explained their part of the story and Clyde had attempted to persuade each of them in turn that he had single-handedly saved the day, they all settled down to ask Anna interested questions about what the future was like. She was happy to answer them – although she steered clear of relationships, so that Luke didn't realise he married to Maria – and even managed to convince Clyde that pizza wasn't around in 2031 for a few moments, before he realised that everyone was laughing at his horror-stricken expression.

Sarah Jane was amazed at the change in Anna from the scared girl in her bedroom to the confident, playful young woman before her now, but at the same time, she was still just the same: the air of innocence, and trust was there, and she was still overly-modest, always trying to direct praise away from herself to other people. Sarah Jane smiled, pretending to just be amused by the joke.

"But what about me and Rani – are we around in the future?" asked Clyde.

"Oh, yes, of course!" Anna reassured him. "You're my godparents, actually."

"Both of us?" Rani asked.

Anna smirked, as if enjoying some inside joke. "Yes, both of you," she confirmed, which got Sarah Jane thinking very fast.

Anna also revealed, much to everyone's relief, that saving the world from alien attacks was as much a part of life for the Smiths and friends in 2031 as it was in 2011.

"Which would explain how you guessed I was a time traveller, and that you knew how to work the vortex manipulator!" Sarah Jane concluded.

Eventually, Clyde and Rani decided to retire, when Gita had called Rani for the fourth time, and Luke spotted them holding hands as they crossed the street and had to quickly look away chuckling, seeing their manner of wishing each other goodnight.

Luke left for Oxford soon after, using the vortex manipulator, which he then sent back using the ETD, along with a note promising Sarah Jane that he would secretly disable the ETD as she had asked before he left – "the earth has proved it's not ready for that yet," she had said.

The last to go was Anna, who said she had to get back to her time.

"It's weird, because I almost don't want to leave," she admitted before she left.

"And I almost don't want you to leave either," said Sarah Jane. "You were brilliant, you know."

Anna smiled shyly.

"And we're all in your future, so you won't really be leaving any of us."

"Yeah, you're right, and thank you for everything. You can't imagine what it was like not knowing who I am."

"Anna, people don't need to know who their parents are, or anyone else, to know who they are – we are completely whole by ourselves, and you were just as amazing when you had no memories; you saved my life twice."

They hugged for one last time, but Anna stalled just before she pressed the button.

"There's something else I think I should tell you. You know that Maria is my mum, so you'll know I have Granddad Jackson, but I think you should know I have another Granddad as well. We call him Granddad Smith, but obviously it was really you who changed your surname.

She grinned at Sarah Jane's astounded expression.

"Anyway, I should go. See you... soon."

And Sarah Jane was suddenly left alone to ponder what she had said – whether it could really be true... But to be honest, she thought as she clambered into bed that night, it didn't matter all that much, because right then, in that large, empty house, she didn't feel alone at all.

* * *

><p>The End...<p>

The death of the amazing Elisabeth Sladen has caused the end of the series, and a lot of people have written stories about Sarah Jane's death, but a story never ends where the book/series stops, so I feel completely justified in giving her a long happy life and lots of people to share it with.

Please review this story, it's taken me so long to write that I don't really know whether it's good or awful, but the main aim was to try and accurately portray someone else's characters, so please tell me how you think I did!


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